The World of Art

Yesterday, in a fit of what can only be described as insanity, I took Donovan to the art supply store to buy some "kid friendly" (ie, none toxic and WASHABLE) paint and supplies.

Today, to further illustrate that I am slightly delusional, I took my not quite 2 year old outside, and said, "Ok Buddy, LET'S PAINT!!" at which point he looked at me like I was crazy, but decided to stick around and tag along for the ride.

It didn't take very long before Donovan figured out what this whole "painting thing" was about, and well, I'm no art critic, but for a not quite 2 year old, I think he did pretty darn good!

(ok, he's not excatly smiling in these two pictures, but trust me, he had a great time!)

I of course had to include the picture of him back in the house, still covered in (now dry, thank goodness) paint, and much to busy to stop and take a bath, because he had to stop and well PLAY on the way up!

It was a great morning, and I had a ton of fun! Although the cement pad in the backyard, well the paint hasn't exactly washed off of that yet ;)

Also, if anyone is out there reading this and thinking about trying painting with a toddler, a few helpful hints...

1 - buy the pre-pressed canvas's. They cost a little more then paper, but if you get them on sale and stoke up, it will be well worth it. First, they are hard and stiff, and stay in place while the child is painting (unlike paper that just crinkles and floats away) and second, they are easy to store (don't crinkle) and make a great gift for grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

2 - buy the cheap brushes. Your kid isn't Vango, and they will treat the brushes terribly, so the cheap ones are all you need.

3 - make sure you get the washable paint... trust me, you will be happy you did.

4 - don't leave your camera unattended while you go put away the "masterpieces" because when you come back, your toddle will have his still wet and covered with paint hands all over your camera saying cute things like "cheese!" and trying to take a picture. And well, then you will have to clean up the camera and pray there was no permanent damage done!

5 - do it, go insane, buy the paints and have fun! It will be worth the mess!

Sunday Review

Friday marked two weeks since I got my tattoo, which meant I had the all clear to start "soaking" and "swimming" again. So Donovan and I took full advantage and went to the swimming pool today. It was a lot of fun, the two of us haven't been there in AGES, so it was a nice change to our routine. The only thing is, poor Donovan wants to be bigger then he is. He had a good time in the kiddie pool, but really wanted to go into the big wave pool (the waves weren't on yet though, which was too bad, because he LOVES the waves). The only problem with the big pool? Well Donovan didn't want to be held, he wanted to be able to walk around like he could in the kiddie pool. So it was a battle of wills, before I finally let go of him, and let his head go underwater (at which point I picked him back up!) that he realized he couldn't touch. We did get to the edge of the pool where he was contented to walk around at chest height (the kiddie pool only goes up to his waist when he is standing). But I could tell he REALLY REALLY wanted to dive right into the deep water with the bigger kids. I can tell this is going to be a trend with him, wanting to do things before he is physically big enough to, well you know, DO them.

We also stopped at the store to buy some finger paints, which I hope to try out tomorrow. I'll post the pictures, and let you know if we have success or not!

After his nap today we went to my sisters house, and walked to the park near by. The park itself was a little "big" for what Donovan could do. But he did enjoy sitting with me and my sister on the teter-tauter. But the really fun part, was the running around in the trees and grass. In the area of town that we live in, well there aren't many trees, and if there are trees, well they aren't that much bigger then Donovan, so to be in an area that had BIG HUGE mature trees, will Donovan thought that was just great.

So my favorite part of the day was watching Donovan run around in the grass, he is just so full of spunk and life and energy it is truly mind blowing.

On the Go

Donovan and I sure missed Jamie today. Weekends are the time that we always hang out as a family, and even if we don't do anything special, well at least we are all together as a family. So today, well today was lonely.

To help break up the time, and to take advantage of the beautiful weather, we took a walk to the park. There were some people flying kites, and Donovan thought that it was the neatest thing. One kite even "fell" and the guy let Donovan come up close and touch it, so that was pretty cool.

We didn't stay too long at the actual park though. Unlike the usual mix of kids, there were a lot of older kids play rougher tag games, and Donovan really really wanted to play with them. You could just see the confusion on his face when they didn't want to play too. I felt so bad for him, and so we ran around enough to get the wiggles out, and then walked home again. On the way home, Donovan decided he was going to lead us, so we took the long way. Of course half way through the long way home, he got tired and I had to carry him. But it was still a great day.

(the pics were taken with my phone, so they aren't the greatest quality, but you get the idea)

Keeping it Real....

Is this a sign that I take too many pictures? Or that Donovan is just expressing a natural talent early on? Either way, it is the cutest thing EVER to see him put the camera up to his eye and say "Cheeeeeessssse!"

Just to prove that he doesn't ONLY eat slushes. His afternoon snack one hot June day, oranges (his favorite, he would eat them all day and night if I let him) and cherries.

Last night I tried on his sunglasses from last year to see if they still fit. Not only did they fit, he insisted to wearing them to watch his last show of the night.

When I asked him to "smile please" this is the response I got....

A couple weeks ago my cousins little girl came over to visit (she is 6 months old), I looked at these pictures for the first time today, and wondered when my baby turned into a little boy???

And finally, I got my hair cut today, and since Jamie isn't home to tell me how good it looks, I thought I would leave that up to all of you ;)

Eight

The UV index was 8 today, which is crazy high. The actually temperature, well I'm not sure, but with an index like that, well it was HOT out.

After going to the park with Donovan an my sister, and him running around like a mad man, it was time to go home. On the way we stopped at the local deli to pick up some freshly stuffed chicken breasts, and well what do you know? They have a slush machine there, and we were ALL dying of thirst.

So I bought myself and my sister and slush, and got an extra straw for Donovan, with the intention of "scooping" him some slush on the walk home to tide him over.

And in what can only be classified as a "remember a couple years ago, when you said, I will NEVER let MY kid do THAT" moment, Donovan ended up walking home with his own slush, and Mommy? Well Mommy was happy to be granted the privilege of a sip every now and again.


************in other completely unrelated news:

It was a pretty good day over all, went to the gym this morning, and after the coke I just finished this evening, I have re-committed to my healthy eating plan. Summer is so hard for me not to snack, the hot weather makes me crave coke, and the long evenings just scream "eat eat eat". So tonight, I've declared to once again cut back on the snacking.

Happy Birthday Jamie!

Jamie left Medicine Hat last night, to start on a trip to England with Team Alberta Boxing! I couldn't be more proud of him.

The only problem is, well today is his birthday, and since he wasn't actually here, Donovan and I didn't get any cake! I think that is a problem I will have to remedy shortly!

So while Jamie is away, I told him I would try to update this blog regularly, so he could keep tabs on us... I mean know what's going on around here.

First, we had some people come and look at our house today, who are maybe interested in buying it! This would be awesome for us, since we want to start building our new house this summer/fall, and if these people buy it, it would be private, and we wouldn't have to pay realtor fees. The only problem I see right now, is this is a 3 bedroom 4 bath house, with a finished basement. Sounds all fine and good, until you stop to consider that they have 5 kids (all girls by the way) and number 6 on the way! So the space might be a bit small. However, they are moving up here from Mexico, and can't really afford anything bigger, so they might have to make the space work for them. I'm not really getting my hopes up, until I know one way or another if they are going to buy it or not. If not, then we will end up listing the house.

In other exciting news. Our master bedroom seems to have developed a black hole of sorts. Let me first say, it is not a very big room, so there are only so many places things can hide. Last week Donovan was playing with his wooden toy balls while I was getting ready. When I went to gather up the balls, the blue one was missing. Strange, but it is a small wooden ball, so I let it slide. But today, today the phone went missing! It rang this morning, and it was my Opa calling to wish Jamie a happy birthday. I remember putting it on the night stand and then I finished getting ready. This afternoon when I came home from work, MISSING! Like seriously missing, when I page it, no answer, when I intercom it, no answer, when I call the house number from my cell, I can't here it ringing! I have NO IDEA where it went to. I searched the entire bedroom, and the rest of the house, and even called the cleaning ladies to see if they saw it, and nope, phone = MIA. So as you can tell, the only logical conclusion to draw from this, is that our bedroom has a black hole. Well, either that, or I'm loosing my mind. But Seriously, that phone, where could it have gone to???? I searched EVERYWHERE. I even asked Donovan to "go get mommy the phone!" "Where did you put the phone?" and you know what he did? Ran into the hallway to get the phone that is out there! Which, YEAH! he understood what I asked, but um, NOT THE PHONE I WAS LOOKING FOR.

The great search/mystery continues.....

What I've Been Up To?

Friday I finally got my Mothers Day Gift. I've been talking about wanting a tattoo for over a year now, and this year for Mothers Day, Jamie got me an appointment (with in my opinion the best artist in town) and Friday was the day!

I was so pumped to get this tattoo, it means a lot more to me then just a flower tattoo. One of the meanings is that there are three flowers on the tattoo, each represents the three members of our family (me, Jamie and Donovan). The background bud represents the background of our lives, Ruby, and also the baby that we lost. For those of you that don't know, I had a very early miscarriage before we got pregnant with Donovan.

It also represents Strength. The past year I have come to realize how much inner strength I actually have, so this tattoo represents that to me as well. The strength is also a reminder to me because of where I got it. The ribs are one of the most painful places to get a tattoo, and sitting (laying) for this one for 3.5 hours definitely took every ounce of strength that I had.

So thank you Jamie for this amazing gift, I absolutely LOVE it! Can't wait for it to heal and I can start wearing a bra again! ;)

On the Go

A couple months ago I got a new cell phone, one of those fancy schmancy ones that lets you take pictures and upload them and stuff.

I thought I would share a few of the pictures we've taken while out and about.


Playing in the backyard. Donovan thought the bucket over his head was the funniest thing ever, walked around like that and everything!

While driving to Calgary we got behind this truck, kinda felt like there was a bunch of nuclear war heads in front of us
The other morning I woke up to a flat tire. The local tire place (at least the one that was closest to my house and I was able to get to) is inside a Sears. So these are the pictures I took while waiting for the tire to be changed.

Who says you have to BUY the toys to play with them?

Really? Is THAT many different colours of playdoh necessary? When I was a kid, we had four colours, red, blue, green and yellow, and we managed just fine. I'm just wondering what 3 year old, needs THAT many different colours to make a snake?

I'm thinking On the Go might be a new thing here, where every couple of weeks I will share a few of the photo's I take while life is happening.